SUV Review: 2011 Buick Enclave

Buick's Enclave has the flexibility to haul a lot of people and their stuff.

Annette McLeod, National Post

The 2011 Buick Enclave.

Annette McLeod, National Post

The 2011 Buick Enclave.

Annette McLeod, National Post

The 2011 Buick Enclave.

Annette McLeod, National Post

Among the large, family-friendly SUVs offering the sliding-door skeptics an alternative to the minivan, the 2011 Buick Enclave brings luxury and bank vault-quiet isolation as its primary attributes. It’s also good-looking, with curvaceous lines and Buick’s waterfall grille and a roundness that makes it look not quite as large as it is.

There’s a lot of space for people and their stuff. It can’t rival a minivan, but it does offer useful cargo configurations, which, unfortunately, come at the expense of interior esthetics. It’s rendered unappealingly messy by the mat-dotted tracks that litter the floor, an industrial effect that’s incongruous with what is otherwise a cheerful, light interior. Fortunately, you don’t notice except when you’re getting in. Even with all seating in place, it provides an impressive 24.1 cubic feet of cargo space. When all the seats are folded down, it offers considerably more space than its Acura, Audi, Lexus and Volvo competitors.

Visual interest on the doors, dash and centre console comes from lush-looking wood inlays and enough chrome to make you blink and tear up in harsh light. Thematically, the interior owes a lot to the simple circle, befitting its rather round personality. The Enclave’s overall feel is sort of bubbly. Where one might characterize Lexus as light-feeling and nimble or BMW as solid and planted, the Buick comes across as cheerful but a bit ponderous, like a parade float. Buttons for the climate and audio controls seem a bit small and undefined scattered across the vastness of the cockpit.

The tester’s leather upholstery, perhaps owing partly to its unappealing elephant-grey colour, doesn’t seem as upscale as the other materials, but seating in the first and second rows is roomy and comfortable. The second-row captain’s chairs, optional two-panel sunroof and floor console, with its audio and climate controls and ample space for drinks and personal gear, add up to a very nice place for passengers to be.

Clever Smart Slide seats get those second-row chairs well out of the way when you’re trying to get into the back, not just kinda-sorta-almost out of the way like most maddening seven- or eight-seaters, which catch you trying to heave yourself up and over a giant second-row lump while thrusting your backside out into the street.

Once you’re in it, the third row is about as good as any, i.e., not terribly well padded and cramped, but there is at least decent headroom and a stadium-style design that eases the claustrophobia.

In spite of its considerable bulk (more than 2,200 kilograms), the 3.6-litre V6 hauls it around pretty well, partly owing to 277 pound-feet of torque available from a relatively low 3,400 rpm; 90% of peak torque is available from 2,500 to more than 6,000 rpm. Brake tests put it at the back of its pack, and there is a lot of travel in the pedal before the brakes bite. The transmission, an electronically controlled six-speed, is fine, although it upshifts a bit more often than I would have liked, and downshifts less.

It’s a very comfortable highway cruiser that fares slightly less well on city streets, where it lacks steering feel and has a tendency toward understeer, as well as some roll in the corners. Overall, GM’s Lambda platform gives the Enclave a lightness and a more supple ride than the body-on-frame Escalade.

While it does include some of the features one requires from its class — namely stability control with enhanced rollover protection, traction control, rear-view camera and rear park assist — it notably lacks some of the more modern touches we’ve come to expect. Where’s the blind spot detection system? Adaptive cruise? Push-button start? And how about a heated steering wheel? (I know, that last one makes me sound a little spoiled, but I don’t care. My hands haven’t been warm since October.)

Direct injection and the fact it uses regular gasoline make driving such a big vehicle a little less scary at the pumps. However, although GM claims highway fuel economy of 9.0 litres per 100 kilometres, I couldn’t get near it. My fuel consumption was about 12.5 L/100 km on my best day, with only myself on board.

Driving up the price by a big, fat bundle were the CX2 trim package (19-inch wheels, heated and cooled front seats, power folding outside mirrors, power tilt and telescoping steering wheel, rear-seat audio controls), a $5,000-plus touchscreen DVD navigation system with voice recognition and rear-seat entertainment system (a must for the minivan crowd), Skyscape two-panel sunroof, trailer towing package and the second-row floor console, for a total of nearly $12,000 in options. Now you’re in Land Rover LR4 territory, complete with V8 power and cooler cachet.

Numerous configurations for hauling a lot of people and their stuff and an attractive exterior design have made it the youngest-skewing Buick on wheels. After four years on the market, the land yacht Buick Enclave sails into 2011 virtually unchanged.